Early this month, North Korea warned that the downward spiral of relations with the South was pushing the Korean Peninsula to the "brink of war" and threatened to "destroy" the government of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Pyongyang also announced it was cutting all agreements it had reached with Seoul and made clear that it would never unilaterally dismantle its nuclear weapons.

To further step up tensions, South Korea's Yonhap news agency and Japan's Sankei Shimbun report that North Korea is preparing to test-launch its longest range ballistic missile, Taepodong-2, designed to have a range long enough to hit U.S. territory.

Some analysts see North Korea as keen in testing the Obama administration by stoking regional tensions. As "Seoul has scrambled troops to land and sea borders," writes Jean Lee, Associated Press' South Korea bureau chief, "the real focus of North Korea's warning may well be Washington-an impatient Pyongyang seems to be trying to move itself to the top of Washington's foreign policy agenda." Others say Kim Jong-il is sending out a political message. "A drawn-out process for any launch of the Taepodong-2 missile could be a way for North Korea, which hates to be ignored, to put a timeframe on Seoul and Washington," according to Jon Herskovitz of Reuters.

Still others argue that Pyongyang's recent brinkmanship tactics is the result of the United States' focus on domestic economy. These analysts are concerned that the new president may be preeminently a domestic affairs president. They are anxious that this may raise the question of whether the Obama administration, with all its domestic priorities, will have the means or the stomach to defend the South. The danger, these analysts warn, is that Pyongyang might not wait - and may take drastic actions - before the new administration has a chance to review its North Korea policy.

No matter what different opinions on North Korea, the issue cannot be neglected or set aside for too long. For one thing, as Choi Jin-wook, chief North Korea analyst at the Korean Institute of National Unification, points out, "If President Obama is not handling North Korea actively; Kim Jong-il will create a problem for him on the Peninsula." North Korea may be poor, but it still has the power to cause serious troubles in East Asia.

During his campaign, candidate Obama indicated a "tough and direct" diplomacy for dealing with North Korea. That in fact may be the best starting point for a new North Korea policy. The Six-Party Beijing Talks, a multilateral approach under Bush Administration, has thus far produced, at best, a mixed set of results. While the Beijing dialogues had brought some progress, it was during this multilateral process the North tested its first atomic weapon in 2006.

Many analysts are also concerned about the negative influence that Seoul's new hard-line policy toward the North may have on the future of the six-party talks. In recent months, South Korea has in fact abandoned its role as the "promoter" of the multilateral talks. Moreover, Japan has also adopted a tougher stance against North Korea over the issue of Japanese abductees, which has grown into an ever more powerful national symbol in Japan.

Consequently, "the usefulness of the six-party talks has decreased given that South Korea and Japan remain uncompromisingly absorbed in the issues of North Korea's nuclear dismantlement and Japanese abductees," says Kim Yeon-cheol, head of South Korea's Hankyoreh Peace Research Institute, "we can expect that two-party negotiations between North Korea and the United States will be strengthened under the Obama administration."

A readiness to adopt direct, but tough, bilateral negotiations with Pyongyang does not imply that the Obama administration would be a pushover for Pyongyang. Washington must make it clear to Pyongyang that North Korea cannot hope to profit from threats against the South. And the U.S. should not "abandon" the multilateral approach. The Six-Party Beijing Talks remains a useful framework within which not only different policy priorities between the United States and Seoul and Tokyo may be mediated, but also eventual denuclearization of North Korea cannot be achieved without China's participation.

For a new and successful North Korea policy, it is imperative for the United States to incorporate the concerns of our Asian allies and to encourage them to assume larger regional security roles, while the United States is looking beyond the traditional multilateral approach to fully resolve the North Korea problem.

Dr. Xiaoxiong Yi is a professor at Marietta College and director of the China Program.